Travel

Funny Foreign Food

~ Cheryl ~ 7 Comments

It is a lovely day here in Auckland – pretty much like an English summer’s day – so I managed to get out to the little shopping area close to the hotel. There is a small convenience store there and I went looking for strange New Zealand food. I’m afraid there wasn’t much, especially not that was easily to sample when living in a hotel. I did find a flavor of TimTams that I had not seen before (the “sweet surrender” chocolate hazelnut version), but they are, of course Australian.

The one success I had was to find the necessary supplies for an experiment. You can buy Mars bars in New Zealand (that’s Milky Way bars for Americans), but in addition Cadbury’s markets a very similar chocolate bar called a Moro. My local food expert, Peter Hamilton, assures me that the Moro is far superior. I shall do a comparative tasting and report back.

On Jet Lag

~ Cheryl

The problem with jet lag is not getting to sleep, but staying asleep. After a long busy day it is not hard to fall into bed and sleep, but your body has no idea what time of day it is, so it doesn’t know whether this is supposed to be a quick nap or a proper sleep. The default appears to be a nap, so after an hour or two you wake up, and then getting back to sleep can be a problem. That’s why I was up at 5:00am checking email.

There are things you can do about this. The whole point of Melatonin is to tell your body that it is proper sleep time, not just nap time. However, if you have planes to catch, drugging your body into sleep isn’t necessarily something you want to do. I know (thanks to my amazing super powers) that I will sleep on the plane. And from tonight I’ll be in the same hotel for a full 4 days, not to mention in the same time zone for 6. Hopefully I’ll be sleeping better by the end of it.

Farewell Melbourne, I’ll Be Back

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Well, that’s my day in Melbourne done. Many thanks to Terry and Sal for recommending a great restaurant in Brunswick Street (which is actually very easy to get to by tram from the convention center), and to Alan Stewart whose presence was a lovely surprise.

I’d happily stay here another week, but tomorrow morning I’m flying out to Auckland. I shall have to be very careful not to pick up any sniffles there, because given the level of swine flu paranoia around here I doubt that I’d get back in. Let’s see, I’m going to a convention and I somehow have to avoid getting a cold…

Oh dear.

Melbourne in the Rain

~ Cheryl

You remember all that news we’ve been getting about droughts in Australia? Well that didn’t include Melbourne. As far as rain goes, Melbourne is a bit like Manchester – if it is not raining, then it is about to do so, and it will do so even if the skies are totally clear and blue. Fortunately it will not rain very heavily, nor for very long. If you are lucky you may not even notice it.

And to be fair, most of the time I didn’t notice it. I was either in shops, or indoor shopping malls. I collected maybe 20-30 drops of rain dashing across Bourke Street and that was about it. And I don’t mind that at all because I have had a lovely day shopping in one of my favorite cities. I have the gloves I was looking for; and I have a lovely new coat that I wasn’t looking for at all but I am delighted with, and which cost me all of US$54. I also got to catch up with my friend Kim who I used to work with when I lived here, and thereby caught up on all of the extended gossip about former work colleagues. It has been a good day, at least as far as Australia goes.

New Zealand is another matter. While I was having coffee with Kim I got a txt message from my friends in Auckland whom I was supposed to be staying with tomorrow and Monday. They have been hit with work issues, and so I have just been on the phone to the convention hotel to book another two nights. I don’t know what I have done to New Zealand, but clearly the place doesn’t like me because it keeps doing bad things to my friends.

I now have a couple of hours to kill before having to go and meet Terry and Sally for dinner. I am tempted to have a nap.

Greetings from Melbourne

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Well, here I am on the other side of the world.

The flight from London to Melbourne is interestingly managed. You leave Heathrow late in the evening and spend much of the trip to Singapore asleep. (Or at least you do if you have my amazing “fall asleep in moving vehicles” superpower.) There is then a very short “day” that comprises breakfast on the plane, a short walk around Changi and supper on the plane. After that there is a short “night”, and you get dumped out in Melbourne at around 5:00am. I’m surprisingly awake.

For the benefit of those of you planning a trip next year, there is an ANZ bank ATM right opposite the customs exit at Melbourne airport. I put my US card in it and got AU$, no problem at all, though obviously there will be a fee.

One thing I hope people won’t have to cope with next year is flu panics. Australia is still deep in medical paranoia and there is an extra form you have to fill out. Like most such forms, it is stupid. You are supposed to tick “yes” if you have had any cold-like symptoms recently, including a headache or sniffles or a cough. I talked to the cabin crew in case this was like the stupid question on the immigration form about “animal products” (why yes, I am wearing a leather jacket and a woolen sweater, but those don’t count). Their advice was to confess to “symptoms” even though they were due to pollen allergies and recycled air, and I took their advice because I figured I had no chance of making it through immigration without coughing or sneezing.

So I spent 10 minutes or so talking to the nice doctor and nurse on duty. They were fine, and very sympathetic. I suspect I probably made their morning because I actually gave them something to do, which made it seem less bad having to be up and about for a 5:00am arrival.

A cab from the airport to the convention center is AU$51. You have been warned. There are no trains or trams.

The new Hilton is gorgeous. I admit to being biased as they gave me a room and a free upgrade to the executive floor despite the fact that I was arriving at 6:00am, but it is a very nice hotel. I’m not entirely happy with the AU$30/day for Internet access, but as I got a free breakfast I’m not going to complain.

My job for today is to explore the convention facilities. Hopefully that won’t take too long as I also want to visit my bank and go shopping. After that I’ll be having dinner with Terry.

If you have any questions about Melbourne as a Worldcon venue, please ask in the comments. I’ll do my best to answer them.

Travel Preparation

~ Cheryl ~ 3 Comments

Today I have been busy getting ready to head out to Heathrow. I have a 10:00pm flight to Melbourne. This trip is turning into a bit of a nightmare – no one’s fault, just the way the world is right now. I’ll be glad to be on my way.

Of course the trip to Melboune is very long, so I can’t sleep all the way, much as I feel I need it. I have books, I have the Hugo-nominated fiction on my Asus, and I have METAtropolis on my iPhone. Hopefully I shall be well read by the time I get to Australia.

It looks like I’ll be at Joe’s Garage in Brunswick Street from about 7:00pm on Thursday (28th). Many thanks to Terry for organizing things. Contact him if you want to come along – I’ll be in the air and offline.

I’ve also booked my flight to Montreal. I’m flying Air Canada from London, but I decided not to wait for the discount coupon from Anticipation and I was afraid the flights I wanted would sell out quickly once those were available. I think I was right to do so, as there were not a lot of seats available when I booked. Obviously people who can jump in and book as soon as they get the coupon will be better placed to take advantage, but I have no idea what my email access will be over the next 2 weeks.

Anyway, time for lunch, and then off to Paddington.

Epinal!

~ Cheryl ~ 5 Comments

Well, I am here. Epinal looks to be a lovely town, and they are really taking the convention seriously. When I walked out of the station I was greeted by a large poster advertising Imaginales. There are posters in the streets, and in my hotel. It is wonderful.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Thanks to being able to stay with the Clutes (thank you, John & Judith), it was no problem getting to St. Pancras for a 7:30 departure. The Eurostar was very comfortable, and I slept most of the way through the tunnel. France is very overcast today, and it was pouring with rain when I had to walk from Gare du Nord to Gare de l’Est. Fortunately it isn’t far. The TGV was also very comfortable, and the on-board food was very tasty. It is wonderful to be in a country that likes cheese to taste of cheese.

I’m rooming with my new friend, Gillian, who is co-editor of Galaxies magazine, one of France’s leading SF publications. She has promised to introduce me to all of the French writers. She’s also done most of the talking for me. Apart from ordering my lunch on the train I haven’t had to speak French at all. I’m sure this will change, and then I will embarrass myself.

Also here is Jean-Louis Trudel from Canada who is doing a panel on Worldcon this evening. I’ll go along to that to answer questions.

The only small snag I had had thus far is that the wi-fi signal is too weak in my hotel room so I have to come down to the lobby get online. Fortunately I also have the iPhone and Twitter. That’s the best way to keep up with me while I’m here. I don’t expect to be able to answer email more than once or twice a day.

Aus/NZ Tour Update

~ Cheryl

Things are sort of looking up on this front. No news on the business venture, so I’m still very worried about my pals out in NZ, but I have found a possibility of somewhere to stay in Auckland, and it appears that I have rather more Hilton points than I thought I had, so I’m feeling a lot more confident about the trip.

I could still do with a room share in Adelaide though. Is anyone reading this going to Conjecture?

NZ/Aus Tour Update

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

One of the less fun things that happened on the trip to Montreal was discovering that the business reason that I had for doing the New Zealand and Australia trip had fallen victim to the credit crunch. It isn’t officially dead yet, and a great deal of talking to venture capitalists is going on. More importantly two very good friends of mine are now suffering serious financial viability worries.

My problem is less serious, but none the less still a problem. I have paid for the plane tickets and they are non-refundable. I want to go. But I no longer have a good business reason for going and there are still convention memberships, hotel bills and the like to pay for. Without the business reason for making the trip I don’t think I can justify the extra expense. But the venture capitalists probably won’t make up their minds for a week or two, if that. It is all a bit complicated.

Right now I’m not sure what to do, but if anyone in New Zealand or Australia has any good excuses for me going, or is able to help with hotel bills (for example a room share for either convention) I’d be very pleased to hear from you.

Montreal Shopping

~ Cheryl ~ 5 Comments

It would appear that Saint Catherine, as well as having a thing about wheels, was a shopaholic, because Rue Sainte-Catherine is crammed full of opportunities for retail therapy. Helpfully much of it is underground, allowing the serious shopper to continue to browse whatever the weather.

Fortunately for my bank balance, my suitcases are very full, so aside from a few gifts for friends I haven’t bought anything. And it probably isn’t a good idea to buy clothes if you have been over-eating all weekend. But I did look for a bookstore. There are not many. I found two, only one of which was still in business. It sold mainly French-language books, and from that I learned that if we want to be a hit with the locals the people we need to get to attend Worldcon are Trudi Canavan and Fiona McIntosh.

My feet are not desperately in need of some relaxation, so I think I’ll go in search of a nice, friendly taxi.

Montreal – Getting There #worldcon

~ Cheryl ~ 1 Comment

I was too tired last night to do a proper post, so here’s a quick recap of the arrival at Montreal.

Firstly I was very impressed with Air Canada. Their flights from the UK are very conveniently timed, their have the best in-flight entertainment system I have yet seen, and the food was edible. Of course despite there being 20+ movies available there still wasn’t much I wanted to watch. The categorization was a bit odd too. Why is Citizen Kane “contemporary” rather than “classic”? Why is a TV documentary about Jean d’Arc “nature/science” rather than “history”? And with echoes of AmazonFail, Milk was hidden away in “avant garde” (which appeared to be a category for any movie with explicit sexual themes – Doubt was there too).

In addition to having edible food, quite a rarity for airlines, Air Canada served us a snack dish was was essentially a lamb pasty. It was a more convenient shape for packing than the Cornish thing, and the packaging claimed it was traditional Savoyard food. It was a good idea for serving on a plane.

Customs and immigration at Montreal were very easy. There is a little form to fill in, but there are no silly questions about genocide and you don’t need a visa if you are coming from the EU or USA. Montreal is clearly a busy tourist city as the baggage area had plenty of guide pamphlets available (Quoi faire en Montreal?) Apparently it is the 40th anniversary of John & Yoko’s sleep-in, which took place here. I am tempted to try to emulate them, but the food is very good so I think we’ll go out.

The taxi to our hotel was CA$38, so quite reasonable if there is more than one of you. However, there are apparently buses that are cheaper. Robbie Bourget and John Harrold were on the flight with me and they took the bus in to get to meetings while I hung around waiting for Kevin’s flight to arrive.

The Holiday Inn Select appears to be very nice. We have a fabulous room thanks to Kevin being a platinum member of their loyalty program. I shall take some pictures later, but Kevin has just woken up so it is time to check out the shower and get breakfast.

Lake in Chengdu

~ Cheryl ~ 4 Comments

Jay Lake is visiting China at the moment. He has a variety of reasons for doing so, including visiting the panda sanctuary. However, while he was in Chengdu he also visited the offices of Science Fiction World. He has written a report about that.

It’s an interesting market, staffed by dedicated people most of us would readily recognize as fans even without any common language, working with the largest potential readership in the world.

Science fiction is huge in China. We could do with working together with them more.

Grand Oceania Tour 2009

~ Cheryl ~ 5 Comments

I have just booked a whole bunch of flights. The net result of this is that I shall be able to attend Conscription in Auckland and Conjecture in Adelaide. I hasten to add that this is being done to a large extent using the vast stock of QANTAS points I accumulated ages ago. I’m also getting help with the accommodation in New Zealand, but I’d be very grateful for a room share in Adelaide. In addition I have a couple of overnight stops elsewhere in Australia that I’d rather not have to be in hotels. Here’s the itinerary:

  • May 28th – arrive very early and overnight in Melbourne
  • May 29th – June 2nd – Auckland
  • June 2nd – June 4th – Wellington
  • June 4th – overnight in Sydney
  • June 5th – June 9th – Adelaide
  • June 9th – overnight in Melbourne

Obviously I intend to report on both conventions, and if I can get wi-fi that will include live coverage of the Sir Julius Vogel Awards and the Ditmar Awards. I’m also hoping to shoot some video of the new convention facilities in Melbourne that I talked to Stephen Boucher about in Denver. And I expect I’ll talk quite a lot about fandom in Australia and New Zealand, and what people can expect when they visit in 2010.

I should also add that the trip is in part on business, but that part of it is still a sekrit projekt so you’ll have to wait a bit for the explanation as to what that’s all about.

Sadly while I’m in New Zealand the Hurricanes are touring South Africa, but I notice that Auckland have a home game on the evening of May 29th. Hmm…

And I’ll be in Australia for the start of the Twenty20 World Cup. That’s taking place in England, of course, but that won’t stop the Aussies from having a good laugh at my expense.

Travel Planning

~ Cheryl ~ 7 Comments

I have been buying tickets. I now have the train tickets to get me to London and back later this month. I already had the plane tickets to Montreal for the Anticipation committee meeting. I’ll also be at the London Book Fair on the 21st and 22nd.

And I have my Eurostar and TGV tickets to go to Epinal in May for Imaginales. I don’t have a hotel sorted yet, but tomorrow morning I shall phone the Epinal tourist board and ask “parlez vous Anglais?” as meekly and pathetically as I can manage. (There are hotels that do online booking, but they are either sold out or several km out of town.)

Then I need to sort out where in the world I will be in June and July (not counting the few days when I know I will be in Helsinki).

Yeah, I know it sounds glamorous, but I can only do it because I’m homeless and living out of suitcase. If I could afford somewhere to rent I wouldn’t be able to afford travel.

A Day Out

~ Cheryl

I spent much of today in London, much of it, in fact, in transit. The easy way to get from Farah’s house to central London is on the Victoria Line, but today it was closed for engineering work, so I had to take buses instead. Have I ever told you how much I hate buses? Especially in London. The Tube can be packed solid as well at times, but it runs on nice flat, straight rails. The buses are forever rolling over bumps, turning sharp corners, accelerating and braking. They go all around the houses, and get stuck in traffic. It is a horrible experience.

Not quite as horrible, however, as being a French supporter in London today. I saw the game from the comfort of a pub in Covent Garden, and a I have to say that if we hadn’t had the commentary (and known the players) we would all have assumed that the guys in blue were the leaden-footed, unimaginative English while the guys in white were the talented, creative French. There was no there there in the French side today, and England took full advantage of their good fortune.

Meanwhile I did some shopping. I have come back with a pile of books. The book porn posts are all on my Twitter feed if you want to know what I bought. Sadly it seems that Amberville won’t be out over here until August.

Due partly to my own slowness and partly to the slowness of the buses I didn’t have time to do any clothes shopping. I was also disappointed that Neal’s Yard Dairy isn’t open on Sundays. But of course I’m here for another week. I’m thinking of going to see Watchmen at the IMAX on Wednesday. Anyone else interested?

In Progress

~ Cheryl

Awake, showered, packed, email and blogs all read. Taxi due in about half an hour. I should be on Twitter on and off during the journey. Aside from that, London here I come.

Busy Day Catch-Up

~ Cheryl

The last couple of days appear to have gone past in a whirl and I haven’t got nearly as much done as I had hoped, but so it goes. The important thing is that I’m mostly packed in preparation for heading off to London tomorrow. Here are a couple of things I wanted to say more about but have failed dismally to do so:

I also haven’t spent as much time at Flycon as I would have liked, and of course tomorrow I’ll be on trains. If any of you have been spending time there, I would be interested to hear what you made of it.

P-Con Preview Revisited

~ Cheryl

There have been some very useful comments on my P-Con Preview post from people who know Dublin rather better than I do. In particular it turns out that I confused the Airlink and Aircoach services, which although very similar do not go to quite the same places. Those of you who are going to P-Con may want to keep an eye on that post. My apologies for any confusion caused.

The P-Con Preview

~ Cheryl ~ 9 Comments

Because I had to go to Dublin last week I figured that it would be a good idea to check out the site of P-Con, which I will be attending next month. Like any good con-runner, I was worried about how to get there, was there wi-fi, what the local environment was like and so on. Here’s the skinny.

Getting to the Central Hotel from Dublin Airport is pretty simple. The cheapest method is probably the 16a bus, but that stops everywhere and takes an hour. I’d recommend the AirLink bus which is only €10.00 for a return ticket and takes half an hour [Er, no – see below]. It can drop you at the Tourist Information Center (a big old CofI church, re-purposed) and from there it is a very short walk to the Central. Here is a map. A cab takes about the same time but is door to door. I got one on the way in because I was worried about time and it cost me €20.

Update: There has been a bit of discussion in the comments and it turns out that the service I caught was not Airlink but Aircoach. It is €7 single and €12 return, but it goes more precisely to where you need to be (i.e. the Tourist Informaton Office). Profuse apologies for the confusion, and many thanks to Mr. Lally for correcting me.

The hotel is slap in the middle of the city so there are plenty of places to eat nearby, including a restaurant across the road that has a passion for science fiction B-movies judging from their decor. There is a Starbucks not far away, and a small grocery store even closer. There are also pubs. This is Ireland, remember. The main drawback of the location is that there are some nearby clubs that play loud dance music late into the night, so I guess we’ll just have to stay up drinking.

As to the hotel itself, my room was very comfortable. It had tea and coffee making facilities but not a lot else. There is free wi-fi but the signal is quite weak where I was on the 2nd floor (3rd floor for Americans), and I suspect it may be unusable higher up. I did not try the hotel food.

Finally, to give you a feel for the place, I shot a short piece of video. I’m a little horrified at how out of breath I sound, but I had spent all morning rushing around Dublin. Here’s hoping that you find this useful.

On Dublin

~ Cheryl ~ 9 Comments

As you may have noticed from Twitter, I am now back home in Darkest Somerset. Dublin was a blast, and also a really nice city. There were some great shops and restaurants they I wish I had been able to find the time to investigate. Maura recommended a really nice-looking museum that I also didn’t get to. I didn’t even have any Guinness. Hopefully some of this will be rectified when I go back for P-Con next month.

I was particularly taken by the use of an old church as a tourist information center. Maybe it is a CofE place that the Irish have re-purposed.

Talking of tourism and P-Con, I’ll do a more detailed post about getting to the Central once I have processed some video I shot there.

Anyway, I liked the city very much, and I’m also homeless right now. I bought an Irish paper on the plane back, and rents seem a little higher than they are here, but it is all complicated by the exchange rate. Hmm. Possibilities.